Orange women Senior Night: Jones, Lisnere near end of careers

Stephen D. Cannerelli / The Post-StandardSyracuse's Chandrea Jones will play her final regular-season home game for the Syracuse Orange women Monday night in the Carrier Dome. The talented 5-foot-9 guard from Baltimore leads SU in both scoring and rebounding this year. Here, she scores during a 69-68 victory over St. Bonaventure on Dec. 28.

The first time he saw them, Chandrea Jones and Lina Lisnere made an immediate impression on Syracuse women's basketball coach Quentin Hillsman.

Then an assistant coach for Alabama, Hillsman remembers watching Jones as a high school junior playing in a small Catholic school gym in Baltimore.

"The first shot I saw her take, she went behind her back, made a spin move and hit a fadeaway 3-pointer," he recalled. "I remember looking around the stands to see if there were any other coaches there. I kept thinking, 'Oh, my goodness. She's good. I hope nobody else is here.' "

The same went for Lisnere, whom he tested during a workout in her home city of Riga, Latvia.

"I threw her the ball, she caught it, turned and hit a 3-pointer," he said. I said, 'Ah, she's a good player.' "

Monday night, Jones and Lisnere will play their final regular-season home games for Syracuse when the Orange hosts Providence at 7 p.m. in the Carrier Dome. They will be honored during Senior Day ceremonies, along with Cintia Johnson, who sat out her senior year after having a baby.

Jones and Lisnere have enjoyed different levels of individual success while helping Syracuse improve its lot among Division I schools. Jones, who played her first two collegiate years at Odessa College, has been SU's top scorer the past two seasons, averaging 15.1 points last year and 17.0 this year for a total of 945 points. And despite being only 5-foot-9, the Baltimore native leads the Orange in rebounding with 8.4 caroms per contest.

Lisnere began her career in stunning fashion, scoring 13 and 20 points in her first two exhibition games. Then, a flurry of injuries - breaking her foot twice and shin once - slowed the 6-3 perimeter player and an influx of uptempo players forced her to become a role player. She has 153 points and 119 rebounds in her four-year career, but has been a Big East Academic All-Star the last two years.

Hillsman said both have proven vital to his team's efforts.

"They've both been good players who have taken two different paths here," he said. "From Day One, Chandrea's never let me down. She's led us in scoring and rebounding, and the things she's done are incredible. She's definitely going to be able to play as a pro. At what level, who knows? But she's on the (WNBA) draft board, so that's the first step. Having a guard that rebounds the way she does and scores the way she does, they'd be crazy to think she's not capable of playing at that level.

"If you took Lina's injuries away," he continued, "you never know what she could have done at this level. But the injuries hampered her and changed her role. She's embraced it and her leadership has been unbelievable. I really have to applaud her. Hopefully, a lot of our players can learn a lot from that because she's very unselfish."

As the two players prepared to wrap up their careers at SU with a final regular-season game and a trip to the Big East Tournament beginning Friday, they offered these insights:

Stephen D. Cannerelli / The Post-Standard Syracuse's Chandrea Jones puts up a shot against South Florida on Feb. 8 in the Carrier Dome. Jones, a senior, leads SU in scoring and rebounding.

CHANDREA JONES

Favorite SU memory: I'll just miss everybody on the team. We all connected last year and this year, so I'll miss the closeness that we've had.

Keepsake: My jersey (No. 24).

Best friend: I'd say Vionca (Murray). She's been my roommate for the last two years. We talk about a lot of things. She's knows more about me than anybody here.

Will you play pro ball next year? I hope so. We'll have to see what happens. I'd like to play in the WNBA or overseas, whatever I can get.

What will you apply your sociology degree toward? Social work. I like to work with kids.

Will you stay in Syracuse or move back to Baltimore? Probably not here. I'd like to go back home first.

Life lesson from this season: You can have something right there but it can slip away in the blink of an eye. You have to always be prepared and never give up.

Stephen D. Cannerelli / The Post-StandardSyracuse's Lina Lisnere goes up for shot against Villanova on Jan. 31 in the Carrier Dome. Lisnere had 8 points.

LINA LISNERE

Favorite SU memory: I'd say that exhibition game (when she scored 20 points). It was a lot of fun and a new experience. I had never played in front of a band before; never had cheerleaders back home. So, it was an all-American college basketball experience.

Keepsake: The picture of me in my jersey from my freshman year. It would be a reminder of who I was when I first got here. I looked different and was a different person. I'll probably give the picture to my grandma because she's collecting all the articles and pictures about me.

What will you do next year? I'd say it's 50-50 for pro basketball or a job in retail marketing (her major). So, I'll see whatever works out best for me. If it's basketball, it will be in Latvia or some other European country. I really love basketball, and playing and scoring a lot of points again would really be a nice way to finish my career.

Isn't your mother, Liga, famous in Latvia for basketball? Yes, she used to be. She's 6-foot-3, like me, and played on this team that was the best in all of Europe. They had this tall woman playing for them, she was like 7-foot-1, so nobody could handle her and the team was pretty awesome.

Life lesson from this season: Maybe to just not get too confident. You always have to look to achieve more and more. You know, as soon as you say you're great, you've already lost. That was coach's saying last year. You have to realize that things change. You can't get comfortable in one position and you have to realize that people adjust to your style of play. I think our team's going to get over this slump and I think we are going to prove to people that we really are good.